A federal judge ordered that a Mexican migrant seeking asylum should be released after being in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention for roughly a month.
Judge Michael H. Simon ordered the release of a 24 year-old migrant, known as Y-Z-L-H, to be released from ICE’s custody, saying that the Trump administration could not detain him given his alleged temporary legal status was valid through July 2025.
Simon ruled that the Trump administration detained the migrant in violation of the Administrative Procedures Act.
The migrant reportedly came to the United States in July 2023 and said he had been threatened by the Mexican cartel Familia Michoacana; American officials let him stay in the country temporarily on humanitarian grounds and he applied for asylum a year afterwards.
Fox News reported:
The government moved to dismiss his asylum case and the judge granted the dismissal over his objection. The migrant is still appealing this decision. As soon as he walked out of the courtroom, he was arrested by ICE agents and taken to Tacoma detention facility in Washington state.
Attorneys for Innovation Law Lab, an Oregon-based nonprofit legal organization that is representing the migrant, argued at the hearing that federal authorities had no lawful basis for arresting the man and had not formally revoked his temporary parole status, allowing him to remain in the United States.
The judge asked about the government’s claim that Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem could detain the migrant, “How do we know whether the secretary has complied with the law unless the secretary tells us… the basis for the ruling? Isn’t the whole purpose of checks and balances that the executive branch must follow the law that Congress writes, and the judiciary is here to ensure that the executive branch only takes those actions that are authorized by law?”
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on X @SeanMoran3.
